1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a credit application management system, and more particularly, to a system and method for efficiently processing multiple credit applications with multiple potential lenders.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is common for consumers to use credit and financing services to make major purchases of items such as automobiles, appliances, recreational vehicles and homes. In the past, vendors such as automobile dealers performed credit checks of potential customers manually before providing such financing services (either through the vendor itself or through a third party lender). The credit checks often involved filling out credit applications by hand and faxing or mailing the applications to creditors, credit bureaus or other potential lenders. Some credit bureaus were able to receive the credit application and offer a credit report over the telephone.
Such systems were generally slow and unreliable. Credit applications often require a great deal of information to be provided by the vender and/or credit applicant. Mistakes can easily be made in communicating this large volume of detailed information over the telephone, and handwritten information that has been faxed is often difficult to read. Physical mail services are also very slow.
With the advent of the Internet and similar computer communication networks, as well as the pervasiveness of personal computers, much of this process has been automated. Rather than completing credit applications by hand, vendors can now enter data into credit applications on their personal computers and transmit these credit applications electronically to banking and lending services through the Internet.
Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown a prior art credit application system 30, which utilizes a network 28, such as the Internet. A potential consumer or credit applicant 20 visits a vendor 22 seeking to make a major purchase such as an automobile. The purchase requires that a lender 34a, 34b, 34c provide financing for consumer 20. Vendor 22 receives credit information from consumer 20 and produces a credit application 26a that is in a format acceptable to, for example, lender 34a. Vendor 22 may use a computer 24 to send application 26a to lender 34a through network 28.
Computer 24 may access network 28 in a number of ways including modulating and demodulating data over a telephone line using audio frequencies, which may require a modem and connection to the Public Switched Telephone Network through an Internet service provider. Other ways to send data over a network include cable modems and digital subscriber lines.
A problem with system 30 is that different lenders 34a, 34b, 34c typically require different data in their credit applications, require the data to be provided in different formats, use different software interfaces and different transmission methods. If vendor 22 wishes to forward multiple credit applications to different lenders 34a, 34b, 34c, vendor 22 has to manually enter credit information about consumer 20 three times to generate three separate applications 26a, 26b, 26c for each lender 34a, 34b, 34c and may have to transmit each application 26a, 26b, 26c in a distinct manner. Like the manual methodologies of the past, this is still a slow process, and is prone to errors.
There is therefore a need in the art for a system and method which allows vendors and consumers to forward a credit application to multiple lenders in a more efficient and reliable way.
If the above problems could be overcome, credit application management could be used in many different environments. For example, sales persons in car dealerships could use it to query providers of car loans, real estate agents could use it to solicit banks regarding mortgages, and individuals could use it to solicit insurance quotes, apply for credit cards, and perform similar tasks.